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Sociology |
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This section may require copy editing. (December 2023) |
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Discrimination |
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Social equity is concerned with justice and fairness of social policy based on the principle of substantive equality.[1] Since the 1960s, the concept of social equity has been used in a variety of institutional contexts, including education and public administration.
Social equity within a society is different from social equality based on formal equality of opportunity.[2] For example, person A may have no difficulty walking, person B may be able to walk but have difficulties with stairs, while person C may be unable to walk at all. Social equality would be treating each of those three people in the same way (by providing each with the same aids, or none), whereas social equity pursues the aim of making them equally capable of traversing public spaces by themselves (e.g. by installing lifts next to staircases and providing person C with a wheelchair).